ATTAK came from New Mills, High Peak, Derbyshire, England and had some success back in the early 80s with their first single "Today's Generation" released on the "No Future" record label, climbing to number 15 in the, what was then, very important and influential independent record charts.
The government at the time played a huge part in the members of Attak's outlook on life with one of the highest unemployment rates they had ever known before in the U.K.
"Maggie Thatcher" the Prime Minister at the time was hated by a large section of the community especially in the north of England where the band came from. Hence, most of their lyrics had a political message with songs such as "Todays Generation", "Face The Slayer" and "Future Dreams".
Attak were influenced by a new scene that was happening in and around their town when another local band BLITZ started to gain some recognition with the punk/oi world especially with a music publication called "Sounds" and a writer called Gary "Bushwacker" Bushell, who now writes for "The Sun" newspaper. They thought that they would like to start their own band and got together with a few mates and Attak was born. The original line-up did not include Woody, and Gary's brother Saleem was the original singer, he featured on the bands first demo that included "Blue Patrol" which was later released on the "No Future" classic "A Country Fit For Heroes". Saleem left before it's release and Gary took over the role of singer and the band took a new direction and carried on as a threesome releasing two singles "Today's Generation" and "Murder In The Subway" with both of them doing well in the independent charts. Gary "Bushwacker" Bushell interviewed the band for "Sounds" on October 9th 1982, read it here. Lots of mail was now arriving from fanzines asking for info/interviews pictures and gig dates. Getting gigs proved hard with local authorities and clubs making it difficult but the band soon managed to get a large and loyal group of fans who turned up regularly at what few gigs the band played. Most of the bands gigs were in the Stockport and Manchester area and they only played London once and it was at the infamous Skunks club Islington.
Attak had a contract with "No Future" for 3 singles and 1 album so the band started working on some new material and soon decided that another guitarist would help them with both their live and studio work. So an advert in the music papers was needed and after about half a dozen potential guitarists played with them at their practice rooms in Stockport they easily decided that Michael "Woody" Woodacre from Blackburn was the man for the job. His style, humour and total commitment, proved by travelling a large distance every week for rehearsals, fitted in well with the rest of the band and he soon settled in. It was now time to book some studio time with "Revolution" Studios Cheadle, Manchester and after 5 nights of recording "Zombies" was ready. The album was released on 2/7/83 and contained totally new material, and reached number 15 in the independent chart. Although their material sold well, Attak still found it difficult to get gigs and decided to call it a day sometime in 83/84. Gary and Lindsay got married in 1985 and have not seen much of Chad or Woody since the split.
